Thames Tributary - Cray flowing to Darent.St.Mary Cray
Cray Tributary to Darent, itself a Thames Tributary
The Cray continues to flow generally northwards
Post to the north St.Paul's Cray
The Cray continues to flow generally northwards
Post to the north St.Paul's Cray
Post tothe west St. Mary Cray
Post to the east Kevington
Blacksmiths Lane
The lane follows a medieval route for travellers to Canterbury which went via Kevington and Hockenden to Eynsford and Wrotham. The road name relates to a former forge.
Forge was operated by blacksmith, Frank Whittle, until the 1930s. A local tradition claims that Longfellow wrote The Village Blacksmith' when visiting Kevington; but the poem was written earlier.
Horse chestnut tree. This once stood at the corner but was killed by gas main installation and was felled in 1894. In December 1983, the local amenity society planted of a chestnut opposite the junction, as a reminder of the old tree. It was attacked by vandals but the Council replaced it three times. The third survived.
Burrfield Drive
Denehole
Chelsfield Road
10 19th house on Roman site,
Chesterfield Close
4 18th January 1965, possible denehole shaft had appeared in the back garden
15 18th January 1965, a possible denehole shaft appeared in the back garden
Cherry Orchard Close
Forming part of the Kevington Estate
Crockenhill Road
Coal post
Red Lion Close
Crowhurst Way
Forming part of the Kevington Estate. The road perpetuates the name of Kate Crowhurst.
Derry Downs
Named in 1885 and perhaps it was the surname of a local family. Building plots here were auctioned in 1866, for £25 and then designed and built piecemeal. William Mansfield, a professional photographer owned a house here.
51 Elmdene was Elm Cottage and owned up by the son of William Cook, the Buff Orpington man, as a poultry farm in competition with his father.
53 A chalk well appeared in November 1967. It was 5m deep with one of its three chambers visible.
The Manse. From 1890 this housed by successive ministers of the Temple Church.
Elizabeth Way
Named to mark Coronation Year, 1953
High Street
Blown up by land mine 1941 and much property destroyed
Rosecroft Social Club. Late 19th building with pitched gables, ridge tiles, and tall chimney stacks.
265 Rosecroft Cottage. set back from the road. A Listed building of 18th design with 20th alterations. Once the home of William Buster, a local school governor who introduced pupils to horticulture. Memorial to him in the school.
318 apparently a 17/18th building with a 19th shop extension. It has a timber frame, weather-boarding, brick and handmade tiles. Listed
316 was a butchers shop and has since been converted to a house. Cat-slide roof at the rear. Listed
208 Spring Hall. Demolished. This was an early 18th house once the home of John Snelling, owner of the St. Mary Cray Brewery. It was named after two springs, which fed the river here - one supplied the house, and the other the Brewery. Snelling’s children included Lilian, an artist, who specialized in botanical illustration. Converted into flats by the council.
Spring Lodge. Built on the site of an old barn. A warden controlled home for the elderly.
231-233 'Latimer Court'. Converted to flats in 1996. Grade II listed.
235 - 237 3-storey blocks of the mid-19th.
259 Red Lion. In business in 1756 but it is likely that there was an earlier hostelry on site.
Cottages. Sites converted to an amenity area.
St.Mary Cray Primary School. 1909. This replaced an earlier school building, the outer boundary wall of which is still there. Modern extensions.
Mini market. Formerly known as 'Fort Knox' through the absence of ground floor windows. Remodelled in 1996
Blue Anchor pub
Co-op cottages. Long front gardens
Flint lodge. Small 19th century
Village Hall, Library and Baths
Rookery. Nearby street names and a cottage are the only reminders of this 18th building which was demolished after a fire in 1980. Once owned by William Joynson
Temple Church. 1954. This replaced an original flint and stone building of 1851, demolished after wartime bomb damage. William Joynson paid £12,000 to build this original church. The railings along the front wall were removed for the war effort and have never been replaced but the wall remains. The old church had large clock dials, facing the cardinal points.
Upper Paper Mill, This stood opposite the Temple,. It had an undershot wheel. In 1784 William Townsend was cited as a paper maker here, In 1786 Martha Lay was running the mill in 1816 and paper from this mill bore her warermark in 1804 The mill ceased working in 1834
Moffat Hall. 1891 a reminder of the Victorian status of the area and its benefactors. Built of flint.
Kent Road
Used to be called The Broadway
Reynolds Cross – the Junction with High Street once known locally as Smith's Cross and it is now Reynolds Cross - after Reynolds Smith who had a nearby smallholding. Coaches left here daily at 8 am for Greenwich and the London and Greenwich Railway which was the district's nearest rail link to the City.
Rowlands. At the junction of High Street. Imposing brick house 18th although there is evidence of a Tudor cellar. Christian Action (Bromley) Housing Association converted it into flats in 1979.
St.Joseph's RC church. Red and white construction with a Prominent brick tower by J Plaskett Marshall and replaces a church destroyed in 1941. Remodelled 1959. It has a plain exterior but it is big inside and used for recitals and concerts. The top of the tower was altered in 1986.
1 Anglesea Arms rebuilt in 1939 on the site of an earlier ale house. It was then set back from the road in 1939 and given a mock Tudor front.
3, 5, 7, late 18th century
21 White Swan 19th character
Wealden House once the Golden Teapot. Black weather boarded building restored in 1984 and converted to residential use. 2nd mixing bowl found on site. Likely there was a Roman building on site now under the present house.
Kent Row. Three properties remain which date from the late 18th. There is an Enamel sign on 3. Converted to housing by the Kelsey Housing Association in 1997.
New property, by Kelsey HA.
Mountfield Estate
Northfield Avenue,
This was the name of a house which once stood in the North Field.
River Cray
The river was once wider and deeper and it is said that Queen Elizabeth I was rowed upstream in her Royal Barge when she visited Orpington in 1573. Until the end of the 19th it was known for its trout
Riverside Gardens
Part of a route used as a short cut by tanners from the Cray Tannery Yard in Little Essex (the Rope Walk) heading to the pub.
Gardens improved as part the Upper Cray Valley drainage works in the early 1990s.
Effingham Lodge. Demolished soon after the Second World War. This was the estate house of the Joynson family and once owned by Edmund Joynson of the Cray Paper Mill, a benefactor to the Village. Only the stables and boundary wall of the property remain; reconstructed in 1992. Hidden in dense woodlands.
Stables hidden in wooded area. Converted to housing use in 1996.
Snelling’s mill - - a watermill which stood between Spring Hall and Effingham Lodge. This was a Domesday corn mill demolished in 1885 although parts remained in the 1950s. The machinery was used for the fountains at the Rookery. Site cleared in the 1960s. William Joynson had bought the mill for £8,000 to enable the creation of the park on the site. The waterfall is the only remains of the watermill
Boating pond. The Dolphin Model Boats Club.
Spring Hall. Line of trees marks the boundary of the site.
Ronfearn Avenue
Called after local sportsman
Sweeps Lane
Denehole
Wellington Road
75 Beech Tree Pub.
Blacksmiths Lane
The lane follows a medieval route for travellers to Canterbury which went via Kevington and Hockenden to Eynsford and Wrotham. The road name relates to a former forge.
Forge was operated by blacksmith, Frank Whittle, until the 1930s. A local tradition claims that Longfellow wrote The Village Blacksmith' when visiting Kevington; but the poem was written earlier.
Horse chestnut tree. This once stood at the corner but was killed by gas main installation and was felled in 1894. In December 1983, the local amenity society planted of a chestnut opposite the junction, as a reminder of the old tree. It was attacked by vandals but the Council replaced it three times. The third survived.
Burrfield Drive
Denehole
Chelsfield Road
10 19th house on Roman site,
Chesterfield Close
4 18th January 1965, possible denehole shaft had appeared in the back garden
15 18th January 1965, a possible denehole shaft appeared in the back garden
Cherry Orchard Close
Forming part of the Kevington Estate
Crockenhill Road
Coal post
Red Lion Close
Crowhurst Way
Forming part of the Kevington Estate. The road perpetuates the name of Kate Crowhurst.
Derry Downs
Named in 1885 and perhaps it was the surname of a local family. Building plots here were auctioned in 1866, for £25 and then designed and built piecemeal. William Mansfield, a professional photographer owned a house here.
51 Elmdene was Elm Cottage and owned up by the son of William Cook, the Buff Orpington man, as a poultry farm in competition with his father.
53 A chalk well appeared in November 1967. It was 5m deep with one of its three chambers visible.
The Manse. From 1890 this housed by successive ministers of the Temple Church.
Elizabeth Way
Named to mark Coronation Year, 1953
High Street
Blown up by land mine 1941 and much property destroyed
Rosecroft Social Club. Late 19th building with pitched gables, ridge tiles, and tall chimney stacks.
265 Rosecroft Cottage. set back from the road. A Listed building of 18th design with 20th alterations. Once the home of William Buster, a local school governor who introduced pupils to horticulture. Memorial to him in the school.
318 apparently a 17/18th building with a 19th shop extension. It has a timber frame, weather-boarding, brick and handmade tiles. Listed
316 was a butchers shop and has since been converted to a house. Cat-slide roof at the rear. Listed
208 Spring Hall. Demolished. This was an early 18th house once the home of John Snelling, owner of the St. Mary Cray Brewery. It was named after two springs, which fed the river here - one supplied the house, and the other the Brewery. Snelling’s children included Lilian, an artist, who specialized in botanical illustration. Converted into flats by the council.
Spring Lodge. Built on the site of an old barn. A warden controlled home for the elderly.
231-233 'Latimer Court'. Converted to flats in 1996. Grade II listed.
235 - 237 3-storey blocks of the mid-19th.
259 Red Lion. In business in 1756 but it is likely that there was an earlier hostelry on site.
Cottages. Sites converted to an amenity area.
St.Mary Cray Primary School. 1909. This replaced an earlier school building, the outer boundary wall of which is still there. Modern extensions.
Mini market. Formerly known as 'Fort Knox' through the absence of ground floor windows. Remodelled in 1996
Blue Anchor pub
Co-op cottages. Long front gardens
Flint lodge. Small 19th century
Village Hall, Library and Baths
Rookery. Nearby street names and a cottage are the only reminders of this 18th building which was demolished after a fire in 1980. Once owned by William Joynson
Temple Church. 1954. This replaced an original flint and stone building of 1851, demolished after wartime bomb damage. William Joynson paid £12,000 to build this original church. The railings along the front wall were removed for the war effort and have never been replaced but the wall remains. The old church had large clock dials, facing the cardinal points.
Upper Paper Mill, This stood opposite the Temple,. It had an undershot wheel. In 1784 William Townsend was cited as a paper maker here, In 1786 Martha Lay was running the mill in 1816 and paper from this mill bore her warermark in 1804 The mill ceased working in 1834
Moffat Hall. 1891 a reminder of the Victorian status of the area and its benefactors. Built of flint.
Kent Road
Used to be called The Broadway
Reynolds Cross – the Junction with High Street once known locally as Smith's Cross and it is now Reynolds Cross - after Reynolds Smith who had a nearby smallholding. Coaches left here daily at 8 am for Greenwich and the London and Greenwich Railway which was the district's nearest rail link to the City.
Rowlands. At the junction of High Street. Imposing brick house 18th although there is evidence of a Tudor cellar. Christian Action (Bromley) Housing Association converted it into flats in 1979.
St.Joseph's RC church. Red and white construction with a Prominent brick tower by J Plaskett Marshall and replaces a church destroyed in 1941. Remodelled 1959. It has a plain exterior but it is big inside and used for recitals and concerts. The top of the tower was altered in 1986.
1 Anglesea Arms rebuilt in 1939 on the site of an earlier ale house. It was then set back from the road in 1939 and given a mock Tudor front.
3, 5, 7, late 18th century
21 White Swan 19th character
Wealden House once the Golden Teapot. Black weather boarded building restored in 1984 and converted to residential use. 2nd mixing bowl found on site. Likely there was a Roman building on site now under the present house.
Kent Row. Three properties remain which date from the late 18th. There is an Enamel sign on 3. Converted to housing by the Kelsey Housing Association in 1997.
New property, by Kelsey HA.
Mountfield Estate
Northfield Avenue,
This was the name of a house which once stood in the North Field.
River Cray
The river was once wider and deeper and it is said that Queen Elizabeth I was rowed upstream in her Royal Barge when she visited Orpington in 1573. Until the end of the 19th it was known for its trout
Riverside Gardens
Part of a route used as a short cut by tanners from the Cray Tannery Yard in Little Essex (the Rope Walk) heading to the pub.
Gardens improved as part the Upper Cray Valley drainage works in the early 1990s.
Effingham Lodge. Demolished soon after the Second World War. This was the estate house of the Joynson family and once owned by Edmund Joynson of the Cray Paper Mill, a benefactor to the Village. Only the stables and boundary wall of the property remain; reconstructed in 1992. Hidden in dense woodlands.
Stables hidden in wooded area. Converted to housing use in 1996.
Snelling’s mill - - a watermill which stood between Spring Hall and Effingham Lodge. This was a Domesday corn mill demolished in 1885 although parts remained in the 1950s. The machinery was used for the fountains at the Rookery. Site cleared in the 1960s. William Joynson had bought the mill for £8,000 to enable the creation of the park on the site. The waterfall is the only remains of the watermill
Boating pond. The Dolphin Model Boats Club.
Spring Hall. Line of trees marks the boundary of the site.
Ronfearn Avenue
Called after local sportsman
Sweeps Lane
Denehole
Wellington Road
75 Beech Tree Pub.
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